Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tirath Singh Rawat took oath as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on Wednesday at 4 pm in the presence of Baby Rani Maurya at Raj Bhavan, a day after his predecessor, Trivendra Singh Rawat, resigned from the post. Rawat is a Lok Sabha MP from Garhwal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the new CM saying "he brings with him vast administrative and organisational experience."
"Congratulations to Shri @TIRATHSRAWATon taking oath as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. He brings with him vast administrative and organisational experience. I am confident under his leadership the state will continue to scale new heights of progress," the PM said in a tweet.
Tirath was unanimously elected as the CM of Uttarakhand on Wednesday morning, following a BJP legislature party meeting. The hill state’s new CM was amongst those of fellow MPs Ajay Bhatt and Anil Baluni, state education minister Dhan Singh Rawat, tourism minister Satpal Maharaj, RSS general secretary Suresh Bhatt, Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Lok Sabha MP Ajay Bhatt and Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. However, Tirath Singh Rawat was preferred in the meeting today.
Amid the political turmoil for four days, Rawat submitted his resignation by saying, "The party gave me a golden opportunity to serve this State for four years. I had never thought that I would get such an opportunity. The party has now decided that the opportunity to serve as CM should be given to someone else now.”
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Tirath Singh Rawat while expressing thanks to BJP, said that in his tenure of almost a year, he would work for improving health, education and tourism. “I will continue to work on development programmes introduced by Trivendra Singh Rawat to ensure the party’s victory in the next assembly elections,” said Rawat.
Uttarakhand’s assembly polls are due early next year.
In the 2017 polls, the BJP won 57 out of the state’s 69 seats, increasing its tally by 26. The Congress, meanwhile, fell from 32 to 11.